Wylie Bay

Beach

Wylie Bay (WA 142) continues to curve round from the rock outcrop for 1.3 km to the lee of Wylie Head where it faces east. Waves decrease from about 1 m to less than 0.5 m and the beach transforms from a continuous bar with a 50 m wide surf... Read more

Wylie Bay (WA 142) continues to curve round from the rock outcrop for 1.3 km to the lee of Wylie Head where it faces east. Waves decrease from about 1 m to less than 0.5 m and the beach transforms from a continuous bar with a 50 m wide surf zone to a sheltered reflective beach used to launch the boats (Fig. 4.37). In addition in the southern corner there is a large boulder just north of the southern tip of the beach, and seagrass debris often accumulated on the high tide beach. The two beaches are backed by a series of active blowouts extending up to 2 km inland, and then by vegetated Holocene parabolics dunes that reach up to 5 km inland, and then by massive vegetated Pleistocene transgressive dunes averaging 60-80 m in elevation that in places extend 35 km to the west, reaching the shores of Rossiter Bay and beyond. Many of the inner dunes were reactivated during the glacial maxima (approximately 18 000-20 000 years ago) and have a more westerly orientation together with numerous water-filled deflation hollows. The entire system covers and area of about 350 km2, and surround some of the inner granite peaks

Surfing

Le Grande Beach is the first surfing beach east of Esperance and offers spilling breaker across a variety of beach breaks You can drive up the beach and have a choice of dozens of breaks, including a reef break located between Lion Island and the shore, 8 km from Wylie Head.

General

ESPERANCE is a growing coastal town with a population of about 10 000. It is a major service centre, port and tourist destination. It is located at the western end of Esperance Bay where a relatively safe anchorage lead to the development of the port in the 1890’s to service the booming Kalgoolie goldfields, 400 km to the north. The port has been upgraded and enhanced with the construction of a major breakwater, a series of groynes and a 700 m long jetty. These facilities, together with the more recent Brandy Creek boat harbour, have however dissected the once continuous 10 km beach, that ran from Wylie Head to Dempster Head, into eight beaches (WA 144-151). Today the town provides a wide range of accommodation and services and is an excellent base of visiting the surrounding coast line, as well as the many islands in the Recherche Archipelago. Cape Arid and Le Grande national parks lie to the east, Stokes National park to the west, while in town is the spectacular scenic coastal drive out to Observatory Point. Wylie Head is a 40 m high granite knob which anchors the northern end of the long Le Grande beach, and the beginning of the once 10 km long beach that sweeps west to Dempster Head and Esperance.